Jolie plays a scene with her real-life daughter, Vivienne Jolie-Pitt, portraying Young Aurora. "The only child in the world where I could actually scream at her, make evil faces, but she'd still smile at me, was my daughter," says Jolie. (Photo: Frank Connor, Disney)

Playing Aurora under Maleficent's spell meant "you can’t move your eyelids or anything," says Fanning. "But because I did it so much, if you focus on your right foot or on your
hand then your face will be calm." (Photo: Frank Connor, Disney)

"I went
back and I looked at the fairy tale and it said, ‘Good King Stefan,' " says screenwriter Linda Woolverton. "And I
thought, 'Well, what makes good King Stefan so good?' " In "Maleficent," he is played by Sharlto Copley. (Photo: Disney)

In the original 1959 film “those fairies were typical
sweet, good fairies with little wands," says Woolverton. "These three (now known as pixies, who raise Aurora in the forest) are complete idiots." (Photo: Disney)

Maleficent "isn't the pretty princess," says Jolie. "She isn't a beautiful queen. She's a very awkward, pointy, slightly scary-looking horned creature who goes through a lot in her life, as we discover." (Photo: Disney)

Already thought Sleeping Beauty villain Maleficent was scary? Wait until you see her powerful, never-before-seen wings, exclusively revealed today by USA TODAY. From the U.K. set of the epic Disney live-action film, Angelina Jolie reveals what it was like to fly with her wings in in the classic tale's reboot — and the workout she begrudgingly agreed to.

Hooked up on rigs in full costume (yes, even those horns) on set at Pinewood Studios, "you're almost like a puppet with all these people moving (beneath you)," says Jolie. "When you go to the left or the right all of you have to move together. It's a big dance with a lot of people."

How did she pull it off? Well, through a regimen Jolie admits she eschews. Jolie's longtime stunt coordinator Eunice Huthart (a close friend, who is also godmother to Shiloh Jolie-Pitt) slowed down and intensified her workouts. "She made me do yoga. And I have no patience for yoga," says Jolie. "It's not something I do easily, because I'm not a still person. But I was forced to do yoga because (to fly) you have to have your core strength to be able to hold yourself."

Great power comes from Maleficent's wings, which are stolen from her dark fairy in the new film. As for Jolie, the actress flies with more ferocity than any A-list Disney-backed villain to date. "I feel like the luckiest girl in the world that I get to fly," says Jolie with a laugh. "I really feel like I'm flying!"